Color-Coding Messages and Setting the Rules - Page 2

The Rules Wizard

Now that your critical e-mail messages won't go unnoticed, let's tackle that server space problem. Again, the key to conserving space on the server lies in the way that messages are organized. To help you manage your messages, Outlook 2000 supports the use of rules. As the name implies, rules are a set of guidelines you can set for Outlook to use when mail comes in. To take a closer look at the options available to you, return to the Ways To Organize Inbox window, and click the Rules Wizard button (if you can't find it, select the Using Folders tab). Doing so will launch the Rules Wizard, which will allow you to establish total control over the behavior of the inbox.

Copying Rules Between Inboxes

It's important to point out that the rules you establish with the
Rules Wizard apply only to your inbox. If you build a complex set of
rules, however, you can copy them to someone else's inbox. To do so,
simply click the Options button in the Rules Wizard's initial screen
and then use the Export Rules and Import Rules buttons in the
resulting window. If you do copy a set of rules to other machines,
just be sure that you haven't set up rules that should apply only to
your inbox.

The Rules Wizard is fairly self explanatory. Just click the New button to see a list of the types of rules you can create. For example, you can create rules that search for junk mail or adult content. The wizard won't usually give you the option of deleting the message. However, you can automatically move messages that fit your search criteria into the Deleted Items folder, which does the same thing as deleting the messages. When you're scanning for junk mail, you can set the rule to use a list of known senders or to search for words in the subject or body of the message. For example, you might search for words like free, long distance service, or home equity loan. Just be sure to carefully consider the repercussions of your actions. For example, if your boss sent you a message with the subject Free Ice Cream in The Cafeteria, you wouldn't necessarily want Outlook to delete the message.

Cleaning up junk mail is a start to reducing personal folder size, but in actuality items in the Deleted Items folder consume as much space as those in the Inbox. The biggest wasters of space are the Sent Items folder and the Deleted Items folder. Obviously, these folders can be handy, but those who don't regularly clean the folders out may have countless messages piled up in them. You can compensate for this by automating the cleanup process. To do so, apply a rule to the Sent Items folder in the same way that you would to the Inbox. Set the rule to move any inbound message to the Deleted Items folder.

Another method that you can use involves setting the auto-archive properties on each folder. To do so, right-click on the folder you want to work with (this includes Deleted Items, Sent Items, Inbox, etc.) and select the Properties command from the resulting context menu. When you see the folder's properties sheet, select the Auto Archive tab. This tab lets you set the maximum amount of time that a message can stay in the folder. Once that time limit is up, you can set Outlook to move the item to another folder or to permanently delete it.

As you can see, there are many different ways to manage inbound mail traffic. With a little imagination and some of the techniques I've covered, you can keep your e-mail server squeaky clean. //

Brien M. Posey is an MCSE who works as a freelance writer. His past experience includes working as the director of information systems for a national chain of health care facilities and as a network engineer for the Department of Defense. Because of the extremely high volume of e-mail that Brien receives, it's impossible for him to respond to every message, although he does read them all.